Commonalities and Difference Among the Civil Rights Movement, Million Man March, and Black Lives Matter

• In Event: A Call to Re-IMAGINE Mixed-Methods Research in the Black Lives Matter Era

Abstract

The BLM Movement is an extension of two prior historic and iconic civil rights movements and events in the United States. The first movement/event was the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, which ushered in a new era that resulted in changes in voting rights, public accommodations, and school desegregation. The second movement/event was the Million Man March, which took place in Washington, D.C. October 16, 1995. It, too, was an extension of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in that it demonstrated the depth and breadth of passion and commitment by a million Black men in this country to preserve the gains of the Civil Rights Movement and to hold ourselves accountable as leaders in our communities and families. The BLM Movement took the struggle for social justice and civil rights to a higher level as it incorporated the strategies, goals, and philosophies of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the iconic Million Man March. One of the common threads among all three movements/events was the resolve to resist the systematic dehumanization of Black men in this country. A discernible difference among all three relates to who the participants were. In the 1960s, participants and activists were primarily Black, often with Black women in the majority. The Million Man March was nearly exclusively Black and male. The BLM Movement saw a much more diverse group of participants and activists, indicating a wider appeal of the social justice movement.
As one who participated in all three movements/events, I have a unique perspective on the differences and commonalities among them. As a Black kid in Mississippi in the 1960s, I have the lived experience of one who was a product of and a participant in the Movement. I marched, demonstrated, and was arrested by racist White police officers. I led freedom songs at mass meetings. I participated in Freedom Summer as a student in the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church Freedom School.

I attended the Million Man March in 1995 and was moved by the presence of so many other Black men from other parts of the country who represented solidarity of purpose and unity of spirit. In contrast to the terrorism of January 6, 2021, one million Black men showed the nation and the world how to assemble peaceably and to express ourselves with dignity and class.I had the opportunity to participate in a BLM-led march in Mississippi, following the murder of George Floyd. The march was reminiscent of the many marches in which I participated in Mississippi in the 1960s and the solidarity and unity that were exhibited in the Million Man March. In this presentation, I will use my experience participating in all three movements/events to outline an anti-racist research agenda that is based on diversity and solidarity of all members of the research team, as well as between the research team and the research participants—consistent with critical dialectical pluralism.

Author

• Anthony Harris, Prairie View A&M University